It really is.
On one hand I am glad that NIL just ended the bullshit make believe about college player not getting paid. Unfortunately it has just created a host of other issues.
What needs to happen is everyone has to stop pretending that the US does not have a fourth professional league and just organize college football around that. Which I think is happening really.
It will be interesting to see how the NFL handles that.
It will be interesting to see how the NFL handles that.
The NFL doesn’t care, I think it even prefers it this way. It’s basically their minor league /developmental system.
There is a marked difference between the college game and the NFL. Those college-age athletes are still developing both physically and as players. I would not want to put an 18 year old on the same field with 25-27 year old players in their prime, but talented ones can compete with 21 year olds.
And, eligibility is strictly capped by a number of years so an exceptional college player will hit the NFL draft at the right time to be an impactful rookie, ready to learn the pro game.
Who cares if a pro player who doesn’t quite make the cut goes back to college? At least they get a degree out of it.
The NFL does not care because the NCAA is their free minor league development team.
When the NCAA (using the current name) stops pretending they aren’t a pro league and form as such things will change.
You and the NFL think that all the existing rules will remain.
- Will the NCAA just allow is best players to leave after four years?
- Why will the NCAA continue to use the 18-22 year olds and not start competing with the NFL for the best players?
- Will the NCAA want Thursday and Sunday TV slots?
You see the NFL doesn’t care because the NCAA is not a competitor of the NFL. If the NCAA forms as a pro league, probably in the south and mid west first, that will change in a lot of markets that the NFL struggles in.
Finally LMAO @ your notion that the player will get a degree by returning to college for a season.
Finally LMAO @ your notion that the player will get a degree by returning to college for a season.
But that’s the fig leaf that makes it all possible, the notion that we can still have “student athletes”, working toward a degree while they play . (Whether or not the degree is worth anything is a different conversation). The NCAA will continue to use 18 - 22 year olds because school is the reason the NCAA exists. And the NFL doesn’t mind, because they don’t want 18 year olds anyway.
If the NCAA ever decides to disassociate itself from the student-athlete paradigm, then we will see the NFL set up a developmental league to compete with it. Maybe even a system where this D-league is run by the NFL directly, but not affiliated with any particular team, and “graduating” players are still drafted. No star athlete will play in the NCAA if there is a direct path somewhere else to playing in the NFL.
